Nordic American Tankers and chief executive Herbjorn Hansson lost on all counts in a Norwegian legal battle against his former chief financial officer, Turid Sorensen.
In the dispute waged in a local court in Sandefjord, Sorensen succeeded in her request for a bank guarantee for her NOK 17.6m ($2m) pension that Hansson had denied her, claiming her behaviour towards NAT was disloyal.
Sorensen left NAT in June 2017 and later set up Faerder Tankers Norway, which is geared to operate in the suezmax segment — one in which her former employer specialises.
The judge ruled that the bank guarantee must be in place within two weeks of the judgment being effective. If not, Sorensen can seize NAT assets to satisfy her claim.
Sorensen 'satisfied'
The judge also ordered NAT to pay NOK 571,000 in legal costs.
Sorensen told Norwegian daily Dagens Naeringsliv: “I am of course satisfied with the judgment and want to put the case behind me. I hope NAT views it the same way.”
Hansson could not be reached for comment.
He and NAT have one month to decide whether to appeal the judgment. Sorensen spent 13 years as NAT's chief financial officer. Before that, she worked with Hansson at Kosmos and Anders Jahre, both Sandefjord-based companies.
She set up Faerder Tankers with former NAT technical director Paal Stenberg. The company placed an order for two suezmax tankers at Daehan Shipbuilding for $60m each, which subsequently were sold to Maran Tankers of Greece for $62m each.
